以色列魏茨曼科学研究所Nachum Ulanovsky、Liora Las等研究人员合作发现，行为的自然切换能迅速调节海马的编码。这一研究成果于2022年8月24日在线发表在国际学术期刊《自然》上。
据研究人员介绍，在日常生活中，动物和人类经常在不同的行为之间切换。然而，神经科学研究通常是在动物一次执行一种行为任务时研究大脑，而对大脑回路如何代表不同行为之间的切换知之甚少。
研究人员用一个行为学的环境来测试了这个问题：两只蝙蝠在一个135米长的隧道中一起飞行，并在单独飞行时（单飞）和飞过对方时（交叉）的避免碰撞之间进行切换。蝙蝠在每次交叉前都会增加回声定位点击率，表示对另一只蝙蝠的关注。海马CA1神经元代表蝙蝠单独飞行时自己的位置（位置编码）。值得注意的是，在交叉飞行过程中，神经元迅速转换，通过自我位置共同代表蝙蝠间的距离。这种神经元切换非常快（快到100毫秒），这可能是由于非常快速的自然行为切换所揭示的。神经元的转换与注意力信号相关，如回声定位所指示的。有趣的是，同一神经元的不同位置区域经常表现出对蝠间距离的不同调谐，形成了复杂的不可分离的距离位置编码。
理论分析表明，这种复杂的表征能产生更有效的编码。总的来说，结果表明，在动态的自然行为过程中，海马神经元可以迅速切换其核心计算，从而表现相关的行为变量，并支持行为的灵活性。
附：英文原文
Title: Natural switches in behaviour rapidly modulate hippocampal coding
Author: Sarel, Ayelet, Palgi, Shaked, Blum, Dan, Aljadeff, Johnatan, Las, Liora, Ulanovsky, Nachum
Issue&Volume: 2022-08-24
Abstract: Throughout their daily lives, animals and humans often switch between different behaviours. However, neuroscience research typically studies the brain while the animal is performing one behavioural task at a time, and little is known about how brain circuits represent switches between different behaviours. Here we tested this question using an ethological setting: two bats flew together in a long 135m tunnel, and switched between navigation when flying alone (solo) and collision avoidance as they flew past each other (cross-over). Bats increased their echolocation click rate before each cross-over, indicating attention to the other bat1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9. Hippocampal CA1 neurons represented the bat’s own position when flying alone (place coding10,11,12,13,14). Notably, during cross-overs, neurons switched rapidly to jointly represent the interbat distance by self-position. This neuronal switch was very fast—as fast as 100ms—which could be revealed owing to the very rapid natural behavioural switch. The neuronal switch correlated with the attention signal, as indexed by echolocation. Interestingly, the different place fields of the same neuron often exhibited very different tuning to interbat distance, creating a complex non-separable coding of position by distance. Theoretical analysis showed that this complex representation yields more efficient coding. Overall, our results suggest that during dynamic natural behaviour, hippocampal neurons can rapidly switch their core computation to represent the relevant behavioural variables, supporting behavioural flexibility.
DOI: 10.1038/s41586-022-05112-2
Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-05112-2
Nature：《自然》，创刊于1869年。隶属于施普林格·自然出版集团，最新IF：69.504
官方网址：http://www.nature.com/
投稿链接：http://www.nature.com/authors/submit_manuscript.html
本期文章：《自然》：Online/在线发表
